


Third Kiss is the Charm

by Roshwen



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Because it's almost Christmas so you know, Did I mention there's a lot of kissing in this?, Fluff, Kissing, Multi, Pining, Pining Jake for a hot second, Romance, So much kissing, magic mistletoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-12 16:35:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12963696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roshwen/pseuds/Roshwen
Summary: The first time Cassandra kisses Ezekiel, it's all rather ridiculous. The first time she kisses Jake, it's somehow even worse. It's a good thing the third kiss is the charm...





	1. Chapter 1

The first time she kisses Ezekiel, it’s all rather ridiculous. Because of course it is.

She’s not even sure how it happened. One minute, they are watching a cheesy action movie in the theatre room in the Annex, munching popcorn and loudly commenting on all the technical and heistical mistakes Danny Ocean and his team are making. The next minute the popcorn bowl is upside down on the floor and Cassandra is in Ezekiel’s arms, her hands curling into his hair as his mouth finds hers in a warm and gentle kiss.

That’s the second surprise, apart from the fact that he is kissing her at all: she always thought Ezekiel would be the one to swoop in, sweep her off her feet and leave her breathless. Instead he kisses her slowly, a bit hesitantly even as he finally seems to realize what the hell he’s doing. However, before he can do something stupid, such as draw back or let go of her or something like that, Cassandra pulls herself into Ezekiel’s lap completely and kisses him back for all she’s worth. Strong hands start roving up and down the back of her fluffy pajama top while her fingers are carding through jet black hair that is soft as silk, his mouth moving under hers in a way that’s both familiar (because she’s kissing _Ezekiel)_ and exhilarating (because she’s _kissing_ _Ezekiel)._

Of course, that is the moment her synesthesia decides to kick in and she has to break off the kiss, collapsing against Ezekiel in a fit of near-delirious giggles.

‘You wanna tell me what’s so funny?’ Ezekiel asks, laughing as well and patiently waiting until she’s got her breath back.

‘You know…’ Cassandra starts, stopping to swallow back another burst of laughter and to wipe the tears from her eyes, ‘you know how in the movies, when the boy and the girl finally kiss and the light turns all gold and the big orchestra starts playing?’

Ezekiel nods, a grin growing on his face as he starts to understand. ‘You actually heard that? While we were…’ He doesn’t finish the sentence, just doubles over laughing as Cassandra nods and bursts out in giggles again as well.

It takes them both a while to calm down but when they do, Ezekiel cups Cassandra’s face with one hand and looks at her with a mischievous smile that has a _very_ interesting effect on her heart rate. ‘I’m taking that as a good sign,’ he says, right before he kisses her again.

This time, Cassandra _is_ left breathless. ‘A very good sign,’ she murmurs against Ezekiel’s mouth after they finally break apart. ‘A very, very good sign.’

\---

The first time she kisses Jake, it’s somehow even more ridiculous.

It’s a week before Christmas and they are in the Annex, enjoying a moment of rare peace between cases, when Jake walks in with an irritated expression on his face, swatting at something bright green that’s buzzing over his head like a giant fly.

It takes them a moment to figure out what the thing is, but as soon as they do, Ezekiel starts cracking up so hard he has to sit down on his desk before he crashes to the floor and Eve throws her hands into the air in exasperation (which is a bit belied by the grin that’s tugging on her mouth as well). ‘Seriously? We’ve got magical mistletoe in here?’

‘Damn thing was hiding in Cassie’s box of decorations,’ Jake growls, glaring at her like this is somehow her fault. (Cassandra is also not laughing. Not at all.) ‘Zips around faster than a hummingbird from hell and won’t leave me alone.’

The sight of Jake standing there, an angry scowl on his face and the mistletoe softly jingling (it’s actually _jingling_ like a little Christmas bell) about a foot above his head is almost too much for Cassandra. Right before she breaks down, however, Ezekiel speaks up in a voice that’s still high with hilarity. ‘Looks like someone’s got to bite a bullet for you, cowboy.’

Jake’s glare intensifies. ‘The hell do you mean, Jones?’

Ezekiel’s grin is brighter than a supernova. ‘It’s _mistletoe,_ mate. Do the math.’

Cassandra is good at math. And even if she wasn’t, the solution Ezekiel is suggesting is pretty obvious.

‘Jake,’ she says, swallowing her own grin as she stands up from her desk, ‘I think you better come here.’

Jake’s eyes bulge so wide, they almost pop out of their sockets as realization dawns. ‘What? No!’ and then, seeing how Cassandra’s eyebrows are raised in mock offence: ‘No, I mean… Cassie, you don’t have to. You don’t have to…’

‘Such a gentleman,’ Ezekiel mutters as Cassandra shakes her head and rolls her eyes before making her way over to Jake, cupping his face in both hands and dragging him down for a brief, firm kiss.

‘That wasn’t so bad, was it?’ she whispers after she lets him go. He is blinking at her rather dazed, while overhead the mistletoe fizzles and twinkles out of existence in a brief burst of golden sparks.

‘No,’ Jake whispers back in a hoarse voice. ‘No, it wasn’t.’

It’s only later that Cassandra starts to wonder at the fact how everything went rosy and absolutely quiet as she kissed Jake. She kind of hopes that that’s a good sign too.

\---

The first time Ezekiel kisses Jake (even though she isn’t there to see it), it starts out pretty terrifying.

It’s two days after the magic mistletoe incident, and Cassandra and Ezekiel have only now found the time to sneak off together to a quiet corner in the Library for a couple of stolen kisses and an honest conversation.

‘You didn’t mind, did you?’ Cassandra asks, fingers nervously toying with the buttons of Ezekiel’s shirt. It’s true that they haven’t set any rules yet, haven’t even talked about what it was that they were doing, but even so. Cassandra is a firm believer in keeping the number of people she is kissing regularly down to one, unless otherwise agreed by all parties involved.

‘Hey, it was my idea in the first place,’ Ezekiel says, tilting her chin up with two fingers so she has to look at him. He presses a quick kiss to her lips before he continues: ‘and honestly? I was only a few seconds away from planting one on the cowboy myself. You just got there before me.’

‘Huh,’ Cassandra says, before Ezekiel swallows whatever she was going to say next. They are so caught up in each other that they don’t hear the footsteps coming closer. They don’t notice anything until Jake is upon them and his swearing makes them both jump apart in an instant.

They are standing in a perfect tableau for a moment, with Ezekiel’s arms still around Cassandra’s waist, her hands still clinging to his shirt as they both stare at Jake in shock and guilt, caught red-handed in something they would have liked to keep secret just a little longer. Jake is standing there gaping at them, his face red, throat working to find words and eyes flashing with anger.

No, not anger.

_Hurt._

Cassandra only realizes that that is what she sees after Jake has turned on his heels and stormed off. The tension splinters like glass and the breath Ezekiel releases gusts warm against her cheek and ruffles through her hair.

‘Not good,’ he says, resting his forehead against hers.

‘Not really,’ Cassandra agrees, closing her eyes and swallowing hard.

‘You know,’ Ezekiel says after a long moment of silence, ‘what we just talked about. About me not minding when you….’

‘And you wanting to…’ Cassandra finishes. It’s an entire conversation in two half sentences and the conclusion takes only four words. ‘Rule of three, remember?’ Cassandra says, drawing back a little so she can look at Ezekiel, a tentative smile tugging at her eyes.

‘Rule of three,’ Ezekiel says before he cups her cheek and draws her close. When they break apart, he presses another kiss to her forehead and says: ‘I’ll go. He’ll want to punch someone and he can’t do that if you’re there.’

Before Cassandra can protest that _no wait aren’t we supposed to do this together_ , Ezekiel has taken off after Jake and she is left to wait in the Library for what feels like an agonizing eternity. When Ezekiel shows up again after a millennium or two, followed by Jake who still looks a little tense, she can’t help but laugh. They both look absolutely disheveled: Ezekiel’s hair is sticking up in all directions, his shirt is missing a couple of buttons and there is a bright pink flush in his cheeks that Cassandra certainly did not put there. And Jake is not looking much better.

‘I see you got the message,’ she tells Jake, trying not to smile in relief as she sees the last of his tension drain away.

‘Oh, he got the message alright,’ Ezekiel grins as he turns and practically shoves Jake at her like a particularly determined fairy godmother. ‘Welcome to the party, pal.’

(A couple of seconds later, Cassandra discovers that everything going rosy and quiet was also a very good sign indeed).


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who felt cheated that the Jazekiel kiss happened offscreen: here you go!

When Jake is upset, he usually wants to punch something. And if he wants to punch something, the gym is the place to go. However, after Ezekiel has taken some steadying breaths to calm the jitters in his stomach and opened the door to the gym locker room, he sees that the cowboy hasn’t even made it to the punching bag.

There is one locker door hanging open and off kilter, as if it has been slammed shut too hard and sprung back open, but Jake is sitting on one of the benches in the middle, still fully clothed. Shoulders slumped, head in his hands and looking… not angry. _Defeated._

The sight has Ezekiel frozen in the doorway for a moment before he clears his throat and says: ‘Hey.’

Dull blue eyes look at him and Ezekiel swallows, because he never, _ever_ wants to be the reason Jake looks at him like that. _Ever_. ‘Hey,’ Jake says, in a voice that’s barely more than a rasp. ‘Congratulations, I guess. Well done.’

‘Don’t sound too happy about it, cowboy,’ Ezekiel says as he moves from the doorway to the bench, sitting himself down at the other end from where Jake is sitting. He says it gently, it’s not meant as a sting, but Jake still flinches a little. It takes all of Ezekiel’s resolve not to tackle Jake right then and there to kiss him to his senses and damn the talking, but he keeps still. Watches with a soft smile as Jake says with a heavy sigh: ‘I am. Jones, I am happy for you.’ Then, after a short silence he adds: ‘Or I will be, anyway. May take some time. But still. I’m glad the two of you…’

Here, Jake’s voice honestly starts to waver a little and Ezekiel can’t do this anymore. He scoots forward, grabs Jake by the back of his neck and kisses him hard, swallowing every stupid thing the cowboy was going to say next. Jake immediately goes rigid but does not try to break away, which Ezekiel takes as a good sign.

When he lets go, Jake blinks at him in the same way he did at Cassandra two days earlier. ‘Jones, what the hell?’

‘Do you know,’ Ezekiel says with a breathless grin because that felt _good_. ‘Stone, do you… do you think it was a coincidence you found that magic mistletoe?’

Jake is quiet for a moment and Ezekiel can finally see the cogwheels starting to turn and the light come back into those eyes. ‘No,’ Jake says slowly after a long moment. ‘No, I don’t.’

‘I mean, we already know Ray isn’t exactly subtle,’ Ezekiel says, trying not to laugh now, ‘but he might as well have put a sign over your head saying _For fuck’s sake, kiss the guy already.’_

That earns him a smile, a real smile and Ezekiel has to pretend very hard he is not sagging with relief. The tension is slowly leaving the room, muttering and apologizing about the mess it’s made and promising it won’t bother them again. Then Jake says: ‘But you didn’t, though. Cassie did.’

Ezekiel shrugs and tells Jake the same thing he told Cassandra earlier: ‘Only because she got there before me.’

Jake looks at him, and now Ezekiel can see the full understanding finally beginning to dawn. ‘Both of you?’ Jake says, the smile growing until it’s a grin, a delighted grin with just a hint of wickedness in it and oh, Ezekiel _does_ want Jake to look at him like that again. As often as possible, in fact.

He nods. ‘Both of us,’ he says, then holding up a hand because he can _see_ Jake getting ready to pounce. Literally. The only thing that’s missing is the butt wiggle. ‘Just promise me one thing, alright?’

‘What?’ Jake asks in a low voice that does _very_ interesting things to Ezekiel’s stomach.

In return, Ezekiel drops his own voice as well as he bends forward so he can murmur into Jake’s ear. ‘Just promise me you won’t quote any romantic poetry crap at me, alright? Save that for the lady.’

Silence reigns for all of two seconds. _Then_ Jake pounces, propelling Ezekiel bodily off the bench and against one of the lockers with a force that almost knocks the wind out of them both. Ezekiel barely has the time to get his breath back before Jake’s mouth is on his, hard and hot and demanding in a way that is completely different but no less exhilarating than kissing Cassandra. Strong hands fist themselves into Ezekiel’s shirt until he hears the cotton start to rip, but he doesn’t care. He only cares about the way it feels when he can finally dig his fingers into that magnificent thatch of bear fur that Stone likes to call hair, or how everything suddenly smells and tastes like coffee and old leather books, with just a hint of cheap shampoo. To top it off, Stone is apparently a very vocal kisser, growling and humming against Ezekiel’s mouth and Ezekiel’s pants would catch fire _immediately_ if he didn’t find that hotter than Australia in the summer.

Speaking of his pants, they are getting uncomfortably tight. And Cassandra is still waiting, although that thought has to come from a long way away, and spend quite some time jumping up and down to get his attention. So Ezekiel does his level best to slow things down until Jake gets the message and his kisses grow gentle until it’s a mere press of lips.

‘Hot damn, Stone,’ Ezekiel mutters, his forehead resting against Jake’s as they both try to catch their breath. ‘You better still got something of that left for Cass, or else she’s gonna be pissed.’

Jake huffs a breathless little laugh, a sound that heats Ezekiel up even more than the kissing did. ‘Don’t worry, Jones,’ he says. ‘I think I can handle the two of you just fine.’

‘You better,’ Ezekiel says, then kisses the cowboy just one more time before he takes his hand and leads him out of the locker room and back to the Library.


End file.
